Shia told MTV that the two met at a Kills concert and it was magic from then on. “Marilyn Manson to me is an indelible figure. He’s a big deal to me, and in my childhood, I don’t know of a scarier figure in art. He, in my teenage years, was the scariest thing in the world, so part of me has always been intrigued.”

Their friendship was solidified when Marilyn, impressed with Shia’s previous music video directorial work, asked the star to direct the video for his new single “Born Villain.” “The song has all these references to Macbeth and all this Shakespeare and heavy theology,” Shia said, “so we tried to make Manson’s Un Chien Andalou macabre Macbeth — that’s sort of what that became.” Wait, Shia actually knows French surrealist films? I am impressed.